November 8th was one of the biggest days in the life of a high school senior because it is the day they will take the National College Entrance Exam. “Su Neung”, Korean college exam, tests to see if a student has the capability to study in college. In Korean society, the Su Neung has tremendous significance to students and their parents, as doing well on the test raises the probability of being accepted into a prestigious university. However, in Korea it seems it takes more than studying hard to get into prestigious universities. It appears that where you live also has an influence.

According to recent research, it has been found that there is a correlation to schools and residence. Seoul residents had 90.3% acceptance rate to Seoul National University (Seoul National University) in 2000, which increased to 94.9% in 2011 among 10000 students. Other six provinces in Korea decreased from 69.9 to 42.7. The gap between Seoul and local residents has widened from 2.34 to 2.54. This means more students from Seoul enter SNU ad less students from local provinces are accepted by the university.
Moreover, even within Seoul there are gaps according to different places. Except foreign high school,s students residing in Gangnam and Seocho province have higher scores in mathematics than those students from non-gangnam areas. The gap had been wider from 1.9 in 2002 to 2.3 in 2011 in terms of top 4% in total students’ score.

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South Korean Human Rights Monitor is a human rights portal supported by Korea Human Rights Foundation.
We provide news, information and insight in English about pressing human rights issues related to South Korea. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Korea Human Rights Foundation.
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